May 30, 2008 - Sodra Cell said that its pulp mill in Varberg, Sweden (Sodra Cell Varo) plans to become independent of fossil fuels for day-to-day operation by the year 2012.

Sodra plans to invest SEK 500 million ($83.3 million) in a project that will allow the mill to use wood-based biofuel for routine energy needs instead of fossil fuel.

The project, due to start up in 2010, includes a new evaporation plant (a key part of the pulp mill's recovery process) and a bark dryer.

According to Sodra, the project will minimize the need for bark combustion in the recovery process and enable surplus bark to be processed to a high-value biofuel, which would also cut out the mill's demand for heating oil in all but exceptional circumstances, such as a startup.

Once up running, the new plant's annual deliveries of surplus bark are expected to have an energy value equivalent to 200 GWh, the equivalent energy required to heat 10,000 homes, Sodra said.

Total reduction of fossil carbon dioxide will be 75,000 tons per year, the company added.